Abstract

By using two-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations, we investigate laser-driven ion acceleration and compression from a thin DT foil in a double-cone configuration. By using two counterpropagating laser pulses, it is shown that a double-cone structure can effectively guide, focus, and strengthen the incident laser pulses, resulting in the enhanced acceleration and compression of D+ and T+. Due to the ion Coulomb repulsion and the effective screening from the external laser electric fields, the transverse diffusion of ions is significantly suppressed. Finally, the peak energy density of the compressed ions exceeds 2.73 × 1016 J/m3, which is about five orders of magnitude higher than the threshold for high energy density physics, 1011 J/m3. Under this condition, DT fusion reactions are initiated and the neutron production rate per volume is estimated to be as high as 7.473 × 1035/m3 s according to Monte Carlo simulations. It is much higher than that of the traditional large neutron sources, which may facilitate many potential applications.

The work was financially supported by NSFC (Grant Nos. 11205243, 11474360, 91230205, 11375265, and 11175255), the National Basic Research Program of China (Grant No. 2013CBA01504), the Research Project of NUDT (JQ14-02-02), and the Innovation Foundation for Postgraduate of NUDT (Grant No. S150202).